STANZA.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
[Published by Rossetti, “Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.”, 1870.
Connected by Dowden with the preceding.]
If I walk in Autumn’s even
While the dead leaves pass,
If I look on Spring’s soft heaven,—
Something is not there which was
Winter’s wondrous frost and snow, _5
Summer’s clouds, where are they now?
***
FRAGMENT: A WANDERER.
[Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition.]
He wanders, like a day-appearing dream,
Through the dim wildernesses of the mind;
Through desert woods and tracts, which seem
Like ocean, homeless, boundless, unconfined.
***
FRAGMENT: LIFE ROUNDED WITH SLEEP.
[Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Poetical Works”, 1839, 2nd edition.]
The babe is at peace within the womb;
The corpse is at rest within the tomb:
We begin in what we end.
***
FRAGMENT: ‘I FAINT, I PERISH WITH MY LOVE!‘.
[Published by Rossetti, “Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.”, 1870.]
I faint, I perish with my love! I grow
Frail as a cloud whose [splendours] pale
Under the evening’s ever-changing glow:
I die like mist upon the gale,
And like a wave under the calm I fail. _5
***
FRAGMENT: THE LADY OF THE SOUTH.
[Published by Rossetti, “Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.”, 1870.]
Faint with love, the Lady of the South
Lay in the paradise of Lebanon
Under a heaven of cedar boughs: the drouth
Of love was on her lips; the light was gone
Out of her eyes— _5
***
FRAGMENT: ZEPHYRUS THE AWAKENER.
[Published by Rossetti, “Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.”, 1870.]
Come, thou awakener of the spirit’s ocean,
Zephyr, whom to thy cloud or cave
No thought can trace! speed with thy gentle motion!
***
FRAGMENT: RAIN.
[Published by Rossetti, “Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.”, 1870.]
The gentleness of rain was in the wind.
***
FRAGMENT: ‘WHEN SOFT WINDS AND SUNNY SKIES’.
[Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition.]
When soft winds and sunny skies
With the green earth harmonize,
And the young and dewy dawn,
Bold as an unhunted fawn,
Up the windless heaven is gone,— _5
Laugh—for ambushed in the day,—
Clouds and whirlwinds watch their prey.
***
FRAGMENT: ‘AND THAT I WALK THUS PROUDLY CROWNED’.
[Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition.]
And that I walk thus proudly crowned withal
Is that ’tis my distinction; if I fall,
I shall not weep out of the vital day,
To-morrow dust, nor wear a dull decay.
NOTE:
_2 ’Tis that is or In that is cj. A.C. Bradley.
***
FRAGMENT: ‘THE RUDE WIND IS SINGING’.
[Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition.]
The rude wind is singing
The dirge of the music dead;
The cold worms are clinging
Where kisses were lately fed.
***
FRAGMENT: ‘GREAT SPIRIT’.
[Published by Rossetti, “Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.”, 1870.]
Great Spirit whom the sea of boundless thought
Nurtures within its unimagined caves,
In which thou sittest sole, as in my mind,
Giving a voice to its mysterious waves—
***
FRAGMENT: ‘O THOU IMMORTAL DEITY’.
[Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Poetical Works”, 1839, 2nd edition.]
O thou immortal deity
Whose throne is in the depth of human thought,
I do adjure thy power and thee
By all that man may be, by all that he is not,
By all that he has been and yet must be! _5
***
FRAGMENT: THE FALSE LAUREL AND THE TRUE.
[Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition.]
‘What art thou, Presumptuous, who profanest
The wreath to mighty poets only due,
Even whilst like a forgotten moon thou wanest?
Touch not those leaves which for the eternal few
Who wander o’er the Paradise of fame, _5
In sacred dedication ever grew:
One of the crowd thou art without a name.’
‘Ah, friend, ’tis the false laurel that I wear;
Bright though it seem, it is not the same
As that which bound Milton’s immortal hair; _10
Its dew is poison; and the hopes that quicken
Under its chilling shade, though seeming fair,
Are flowers which die almost before they sicken.’
***
FRAGMENT: MAY THE LIMNER.
[This and the three following Fragments were edited from manuscript
Shelley D1 at the Bodleian Library and published by Mr. C.D. Locock,
“Examination”, etc., Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1903. They are printed
here as belonging probably to the year 1821.]
When May is painting with her colours gay
The landscape sketched by April her sweet twin...
***
FRAGMENT: BEAUTY’S HALO.
[Published by Mr. C.D. Locock, “Examination”, etc, 1903.]
Thy beauty hangs around thee like
Splendour around the moon—
Thy voice, as silver bells that strike
Upon
***
FRAGMENT: ‘THE DEATH KNELL IS RINGING’.
(‘This reads like a study for “Autumn, A Dirge”’ (Locock). Might it not
be part of a projected Fit v. of “The Fugitives”?—ED.)
[Published by Mr. C.D. Locock, “Examination”, etc., 1903.]
The death knell is ringing
The raven is singing
The earth worm is creeping
The mourners are weeping
Ding dong, bell— _5
***
FRAGMENT: ‘I STOOD UPON A HEAVEN-CLEAVING TURRET’.
I stood upon a heaven-cleaving turret
Which overlooked a wide Metropolis—
And in the temple of my heart my Spirit
Lay prostrate, and with parted lips did kiss
The dust of Desolations [altar] hearth— _5
And with a voice too faint to falter
It shook that trembling fane with its weak prayer
’Twas noon,—the sleeping skies were blue
The city
***